1. W eb s i t e R es ou R c e L ibR a Ry
Generations
in History
Arthurian refinements. (ENGLISH: Thomas More, Thomas Linacre,
(Hero, born 1433–1460) This generation grew up during John Colet, Cardinal Wolsey, Stephen Gardiner;
England’s demoralizing retreat from France, an era of a Foreign: Michelangelo, Copernicus)
rising pessimism and civil disorder. Raised amid elder
hopes that they might save the kingdom, the Arthurians Reformation
came of age with a civil war that did not end until (Prophet, born 1483–1511) This generation began life sur-
28-year-old Henry Tudor established his “new monar- rounded by the advantages of order and affluence. They
chy.” Entering midlife, they closed ranks around a manly rebelled as youth, prompting first the colleges (in the
new era of prosperity (led by wool exports), social dis- 1520s) and then an egocentric young king and his
cipline (led by busy local magistrates), and strong cen- Parliament (in the 1530s) to join in a religious upheaval.
tral government (led by the new Star Chamber). By the time passions cooled, the Catholic Church was
Entering old age, they enclosed fields, printed books, liquidated, the clergy shattered, the masses armed with
and planned voyages to the New World—securing a Bibles, and the Anglican faith unshackled from Rome.
reputation for chivalric teamwork immortalized in In midlife, their insolence hardened into severe princi-
Morte Darthur, their generation’s treasured epic. ple. With women figuring prominently, they became
(ENGLISH: King Edward IV, King Henry VII, John “commonwealth” moralists, “family of love” mystics,
Cabot, William Grocyn, John de Vere; Foreign: “Calvinist” (or “Romist”) proselytizers, and unrepen-
Leonardo da Vinci, Christopher Columbus) tant martyrs burned or hanged for their heresies. Deep
in elderhood, many lived to see the nation gravitate to
Humanist the “Puritan Settlement” they had worked so long to
(Artist, born 1461–1482) This generation passed a shel- inspire. (ENGLISH: King Henry VIII, Thomas Cromwell,
tered childhood during a bloody civil war, many of the John Knox, Elizabeth Barton, William Tyndale, Nicholas
elite attending safer schools abroad. Coming of age, they Ridley; Foreign: Martin Luther, John Calvin)
understood their mission was to embellish the new
order. As young adults, they became the “new Reprisal
humanists”—Greek tutors, international scholars, bal- (Nomad, born 1512–1540) This generation spent child-
lad-writing poets, law-trained prelates, and literate mer- hood amid religious frenzy and a widespread erosion of
chants and yeomen. Hit during midlife by the social authority and came of age in a cynical, post-Awak-
Reformation, they adjusted awkwardly. Some wrapped ening era of cut-throat politics and roller-coaster mar-
themselves in Wolseyan opulence and refused to pay kets. They built a gritty young-adult reputation as
attention. Others waffled. A few (like the famed “Man swaggering merchants, mercenaries, spies, and “sea-dog”
for All Seasons”) exquisitely satirized the reigning privateers who pulled off stunning “reprisals” through
hypocrisy, stood firm for the old order, and paid the luck and pluck. Entering midlife just as their Queen (a
ultimate price. In old age, they were startled by a ruthless shrewd orphan herself ) squared off with Imperial Spain,
new radicalism that overwhelmed their own gracious these daredevil adventurers knew how to “singe King
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2. Philip’s beard” while stealing his gold. Making simple Puritan
appeals to national honor, they aged into worldly-wise (Prophet, born 1588–1617) This generation basked as
elder stewards of English solidarity whose sacrifices children in the post-Armada peace. Overcome by spiri-
made possible a glorious new era. (ENGLISH: Queen tual “conversions,” many came of age zealously denounc-
Elizabeth I, Francis Drake, John Hawkins, Thomas ing the spiritual emptiness of their elders’ Jacobean
Gresham, William Cecil Burghley, Francis Walshingham; achievements. While some later led England through a
Foreign: Catherine de Medici, Michel de Montaigne) civil war that culminated in the beheading of King
Charles I, others were called by God to lead a Great
Elizabethan Migration to America. These young-adult “Puritans”
(Hero, born 1541–1565) This generation benefited as established church-centered towns from Long Island to
children from an explosive growth in academies intended Maine. In midlife, fearing the corrupting influence of
to mold them into “perfect paragons” of civic achieve- the Old World on their own unconverted children, they
ment and teamwork. Coming of age with the great wars turned from the “law of love” to the love of law. Their
against Spain, they soldiered with dazzling valor and moral authority remained unchallenged through old
courtly show. During their “Gloriana” midlife, they age, as they provided the elder die-hards of the great
regulated commerce, explored overseas empires, built Indian Wars and the Glorious Revolution. (COLONIAL:
stately country houses, pursued “new” science, and Anne Hutchinson, John Winthrop, Simon Bradstreet,
wrote poetry that celebrated an orderly universe. Roger Williams, John Harvard, William Berkeley;
Historian William Esler explains that “ambitious proj- Foreign: Oliver Cromwell, René Descartes)
ects of breath-taking scope and grandeur” distinguished
these “overreachers” from the “burned-out generation” Cavalier
before them. In old age, many lived to see their hearty (Nomad, born 1618–1647) This generation grew up in an
and expansive “Merrie England” repudiated by prickly- era of religious upheaval and family collapse. In New
conscienced sons and daughters. (ENGLISH: William England, they were the isolated offspring of spiritual
Shakespeare, Walter Raleigh, Phillip Sidney, Francis Vere, zealots; in the Chesapeake colonies, they were the
Francis Bacon, Edward Coke; Foreign: Cervantes, indentured English youth whose parents’ death or pov-
Galileo Galilei) erty consigned them to disease-ridden ships bound for
the tobacco fields. Notoriously violent and uneducated,
Parliamentary they came of age taking big risks—many dying young,
(Artist, born 1566–1587) This generation passed through others becoming the most renowned merchants, trap-
childhood in an era of foreign threats and war. Coming pers, mercenaries, rebels, and pirates of their century. In
of age with the dawn of imperial peace and prosperity, midlife, they struggled bravely against threats to their
they built impeccable credentials in law, scholarship, communities from Old World tyrants and New World
religion, and arts and crafts guilds. In country houses, native tribes. As politically-tainted elders, they seldom
they swelled the influence of the newly literate gentry. protested the vendettas (such as the Salem witchcraft
At Court, they became apologists for the byzantine frenzy) that mainly targeted their own peers.
policies of James I. In Parliament, they promoted polite- (COLONIAL: Increase Mather, William Stoughton,
ness and insisted on precedent, due process, and full Benjamin Church, Metacomet, William Kidd, Nathaniel
disclosure. In midlife, their incrementalist ethos was Bacon; Foreign: King Louis XIV, John Locke)
shaken by younger calls for radical reform. Their
Arminians argued yet resisted; their Parliamentarians Glorious
applauded yet hedged. Eloquently indecisive in speech (Hero, born 1648–1673) This generation entered a pro-
and sermon, they watched England veer toward a spiral tected childhood of tax-supported schools and new laws
of hysteria and violence they felt powerless to stop. discouraging the “kidnapping” of young servants. After
(ENGLISH: King James I, John Donne, William Laud, proving their valor in the Indian Wars and triumphing
Inigo Jones, George Villiers, John Selden; Foreign: in the Glorious Revolution, they were rewarded with
Claudio Monteverdi, Peter Paul Rubens) electoral office at a young age. As young adults, they
took pride in the growing political, commercial, and
scientific achievements of England—and viewed the
2 of 6 Generations in History

3. passion and poverty of their parents as embarrassments Liberty
to be overcome. In midlife, they designed insurance, (Nomad, born 1724–1741) This generation struggled for
paper money, and public works—and (in the South) parental comfort in an era of Hogarthian child neglect.
founded a stable slave-owning oligarchy. As worldly Coming of age with an economic bust, land pressure,
elders, they received the colonies’ first war-service pen- and rising immigration, they cut a swath of crime and
sions and land grants—while taking offense at the spir- disorder. As young adults, they joined the rough-hewn
itual zeal of youth. (COLONIAL: Cotton Mather, John Green Mountain, Paxton, and Liberty Boys—and
Wise, William Randolph, Robert “King” Carter, Hannah became the unthanked footsoldiers and daring priva-
Dustin, Peter Schuyler: Foreign: William of Orange, teers of the French and Indian War. Proclaiming “Don’t
Czar Peter the Great) Tread on Me” and “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death,”
they entered midlife supplying the bravest patriots
Enlightenment (including most signers of the Declaration of
(Artist, born 1674–1700) This generation grew up as pro- Independence) as well as the worst traitors of the
tected children when families were close, youth risk Revolution. As elders, they led with caution, suspicious
discouraged, and good educations and well-connected of grand causes, while their “Anti-Federalists” restrained
marriages highly prized. Coming of age, their rising elite the nationalizing energy of younger people. (AMERICAN:
eased into a genteel Williamsburg-style town-and- George Washington, John Adams, Francis Marion, Daniel
planter prosperity. As young adults, this “inheritor gen- Boone, Ethan Allen, Patrick Henry; Foreign: King
eration” provided the colonies’ first large cadre of George III, Czarina Catherine the Great)
credentialed professionals, political managers, and plan-
tation administrators. In midlife, their Walpolean lead- Republican
ership style betrayed a fascination with youth, whose (Hero, born 1742–1766) This generation grew up as the
spiritual zeal they both welcomed and feared. Many precious object of adult protection during an era of ris-
elders lived to witness (in the Stamp Act furor) a repu- ing crime and social disorder. They came of age highly
diation of the tea-drinking politeness and rococo com- regarded for their secular optimism and spirit of coop-
plexity on which their provincial world rested. eration. As young adults, they achieved glory as soldiers,
(COLONIAL: William Shirley, John Peter Zenger, brilliance as scientists, order as civic planners, and epic
Alexander Spotswood, Samuel Johnson, William Byrd II, success as statecrafters. Trusted by elders and aware of
Elisha Cooke, Jr.; Foreign: George Frederick Handel, their own historic role, they burst into politics at a young
Voltaire) age. They dominated the campaign to ratify the
Constitution and filled all the early national cabinet
Awakening posts. In midlife, they built canals and acquired territo-
(Prophet, born 1701–1723) This generation arrived as the ries, while their orderly Federalist and rational
first colonial generation to consist mostly of the off- Republican leaders made America a “workshop of lib-
spring of native-born parents and the first to grow up erty.” As elders, they chafed at passionate youths bent
taking peace and prosperity for granted. Coming of age, on repudiating much of what they had built. (AMERICAN:
they attacked their elders’ moral complacency in a spiri- Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Paul Jones, Abigail
tual firestorm. By the 1750s, after breaking the social Adams, Kunta Kinte, Robert Fulton; Foreign:
order of their parents and rendering the colonies ungov- Maximilien Robespierre, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
ernable, they pushed the colonies toward pessimism yet
also toward civic renewal. They became eighteenth-cen- Compromise
tury America’s most eminent generation of educators, (Artist, born 1767–1791) This generation grew up
philosophers, clergymen, and abolitionists. In old age, (recalled Henry Clay) “rocked in the cradle of the
they provided the Revolution with its dire sense of moral Revolution” as they watched brave adults struggle and
urgency, dominating colonial pulpits and governorships triumph. Compliantly coming of age, they offered a new
until independence was declared. (AMERICAN: Jonathan erudition, expertise, and romantic sensibility to their
Edwards, Benjamin Franklin, Sam Adams, Eliza heroic elders’ “Age of Improvement.” As young adults,
Pinckney, John Woolman, Crispus Attucks; Foreign: they became what historian Matthew Crenson calls “the
Jean Jacques Rousseau, Queen Maria Theresa) administrative founding fathers”—and soldiered a
“Second War for Independence” whose glory could
Generations in History 3 of 6

4. never compare with the first. In midlife, they mentored Progressive
populist movements, fretted over slavery and Indian (Artist, born 1843–1859) This generation spent childhood
removal, and presided over Great Compromises that shell-shocked by sectionalism and war. Overawed by
reflected their irresolution. As elders, they feared that older “bloody-shirt” veterans, they came of age cautiously,
their “post-heroic” mission had failed and that the pursuing refinement and expertise more than power. In
United States might not outlive them. (AMERICAN: the shadow of Reconstruction, they earned their reputa-
Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Washington tion as well-behaved Ph.D.s and lawyers, calibrators and
Irving, Dolley Madison, Tecumseh; Foreign: Napoleon specialists, civil servants and administrators. In midlife,
Bonaparte, Ludwig van Beethoven) their mild commitment to social melioration was whip-
sawed by the passions of youth. They matured into
Transcendental America’s genteel yet juvenating Rough Riders in the era
(Prophet, born 1792–1821), the proud offspring of a secure of Freud’s “talking cure” and late-Victorian sentimental-
new nation, were the first American children to be por- ity. After busting trusts and achieving “Progressive” pro-
traited (and named at birth) as individuals. Coming of cedural reforms, their elders continued to urge tolerance
age as evangelists, reformers, and campus rioters, they upon less conciliatory juniors. (AMERICAN: Theodore
triggered a spiritual paroxysm across the nation. As cru- Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Henry James, Booker T.
sading young adults, their divergent inner visions exacer- Washington, Katherine Lee Bates, Clarence Darrow;
bated sectional divisions. Entering midlife, graying Foreign: Oscar Wilde, Sigmund Freud)
abolitionists and Southrons spurned compromise and led
the nation into the Civil War, their zeal fired by the moral Missionary
pronouncements of an aging clergy. The victors achieved (Prophet, born 1860–1882) This generation became the
emancipation but were blocked from imposing as pun- indulged home-and-hearth children of the post-Civil
ishing a peace as the old radicals wished. In elderhood, War era. They came of age as labor anarchists, campus
their feminists and poets (many with flowing beards) rioters and ambitious first graduates of black and women’s
became unyielding expositors of truth and justice. colleges. Their young adults pursued rural populism,
(AMERICAN: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Ralph settlement house work, missionary crusades, “muckrake”
Waldo Emerson, Susan B. Anthony, Nat Turner, William journalism, and women’s suffrage. In midlife, their
Lloyd Garrison; Foreign: Queen Victoria, Karl Marx) Decency brigades and “fundamentalists” imposed
Prohibition, cracked down on immigration, and orga-
Gilded nized Vice Squads. In the 1930s and ‘40s, their elder elite
(Nomad, born 1822–1842) This generation lived a hard- became the “Wise Old Men” who enacted a “New Deal”
scrabble childhood around parents distracted by spiri- (and Social Security) for the benefit of youth, led the
tual upheavals. They came of age amid rising national global war against fascism, and reaffirmed America’s high-
tempers, torrential immigration, commercialism, Know est ideals during a transformative era in world history.
Nothing politics, and declining college enrollments. As (AMERICAN: (Franklin Roosevelt, W.E.B. DuBois, William
young adults, many pursued fortunes in frontier boom Jennings Bryan, Upton Sinclair, Jane Addams, Douglas
towns or as fledgling “robber barons.” Their Lincoln MacArthur; Foreign: Winston Churchill, V.I. Lenin)
Shouters and Johnny Rebs rode eagerly into a Civil War
that left them decimated, Confederates especially. Lost
Having learned to detest moral zealotry, their midlife (Nomad, born 1883–1900) This generation grew up amidst
Presidents and industrialists put their stock in Darwinian urban blight, unregulated drug use, child “sweat shops,”
economics, Boss Tweed politics, Victorian prudery, and and massive immigration. Their independent, streetwise
Carnegie’s “Law of Competition.” As elders, they landed attitude lent them a “bad kid” reputation. After coming
on the “industrial scrap heap” of an urbanizing economy of age as “flaming youth,” doughboys, and flappers, they
that was harsh to most old people. (AMERICAN: Ulysses were alienated by a war whose homecoming turned sour.
Grant, Mark Twain, John D. Rockefeller, Louisa May Their young-adult novelists, barnstormers, gangsters,
Alcott, William James, Sitting Bull; Foreign: Lewis sports stars, and film celebrities gave the roar to the ‘20s.
Carroll, Maximilian) The Great Depression hit them in midlife, at the peak of
their careers. The “buck stopped” with their pugnacious
battlefield and homefront managers of a hot war—and
4 of 6 Generations in History

5. their frugal and straight-talking leaders of a new “cold” liness, and Father Knows Best family order. From the
one. As elders, they paid high tax rates to support their Summer of Love to the Days of Rage, they came of age
world-conquering juniors, while asking little for them- rebelling against the worldly blueprints of their parents.
selves. (AMERICAN: Harry Truman, Irving Berlin, George As their “flower child,” Black Panther, Weathermen, and
Patton, Mae West, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong; Jesus Freak fringes proclaimed themselves arbiters of
Foreign: Adolph Hitler, Mao Zedong) public morals, youth pathologies worsened—and SAT
scores began a 17-year slide. In the early 1980s, many
G.I. young adults became self-absorbed “yuppies” with
(Hero, born 1901–1924) This generation developed a mainstream careers but perfectionist lifestyles. Entering
special and “good kid” reputation as the beneficiaries of midlife (and national power), they are trumpeting val-
new playgrounds, scouting clubs, vitamins, and child- ues, touting a “politics of meaning,” and waging
labor restrictions. They came of age with the sharpest scorched-earth Culture Wars. (AMERICAN: Bill Clinton,
rise in schooling ever recorded. As young adults, their Newt Gingrich, Steven Spielberg, Candice Bergen, Spike
uniformed corps patiently endured depression and Lee, Bill Gates; Foreign: Tony Blair, Binyamin
heroically conquered foreign enemies. In a midlife sub- Netanyahu)
sidized by the G.I. Bill, they built gleaming suburbs,
invented miracle vaccines, plugged “missile gaps,” and 13th
launched moon rockets. Their unprecedented grip on (Nomad, born 1961–1981) This generation survived a
the Presidency began with a New Frontier, a Great “hurried” childhood of divorce, latchkeys, open class-
Society, and Model Cities, but wore down through rooms, devil-child movies, and a shift from G to R rat-
Vietnam, Watergate, deficits, and problems with “the ings. They came of age curtailing the earlier rise in youth
vision thing.” As “senior citizens,” they safeguarded their crime and fall in test scores—yet heard themselves
own “entitlements” but had little influence over culture denounced as so wild and stupid as to put The Nation
and values. (AMERICAN: John Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, At Risk. As young adults, maneuvering through a sexual
Walt Disney, Judy Garland, John Wayne, Walter Cronkite; battlescape of AIDS and blighted courtship rituals—
Foreign: Willy Brandt, Leonid Brezhnev) they date and marry cautiously. In jobs, they embrace
risk and prefer free agency over loyal corporatism. From
Silent grunge to hip-hop, their splintery culture reveals a hard-
(Artist, born 1925–1942) This generation grew up as the ened edge. Politically, they lean toward pragmatism and
suffocated children of war and depression. They came nonaffiliation, and would rather volunteer than vote.
of age just too late to be war heroes and just too early to Widely criticized as “Xers” or “slackers,” they inhabit a
be youthful free spirits. Instead, this early-marrying Reality Bites economy of declining young-adult living
Lonely Crowd became the risk-averse technicians and standards. (AMERICAN: Tom Cruise, Jodie Foster, Michael
professionals as well as the sensitive rock ‘n rollers and Dell, Deion Sanders, Winona Ryder, Quentin Tarantino;
civil-rights advocates of a post-crisis era in which con- Foreign: Princess Di, Alanis Morissette)
formity seemed to be a sure ticket to success. Midlife
was an anxious “passage” for a generation torn between Millennial
stolid elders and passionate juniors. Their surge to power (Hero?, born 1982–?) first arrived when “Babies on
coincided with fragmenting families, cultural diversity, Board” signs appeared. As abortion and divorce rates
institutional complexity, and prolific litigation. They are ebbed, the popular culture began stigmatizing hands-off
entering elderhood with unprecedented affluence, a parental styles and recasting babies as special. Child
“hip” style, and a reputation for indecision. (AMERICAN: abuse and child safety became hot topics, while books
Colin Powell, Walter Mondale, Woody Allen, Martin teaching virtues and values became best-sellers. Today,
Luther King, Jr., Sandra Day O’Connor, Elvis Presley; politicians define adult issues (from tax cuts to deficits)
Foreign: Anne Frank, Mikhail Gorbachev) in terms of their effects on children. Hollywood is
replacing cinematic child devils with child angels, and
Boom cable TV and the internet are cordoning off “child-
(Prophet, born 1943–1960) This generation basked as friendly” havens. While educators speak of “standards”
children in Dr. Spock permissiveness, suburban con- and “cooperative learning,” school uniforms are surging
formism, Sputnik-era schooling, Beaver Cleaver friend- in popularity. With adults viewing children more posi-
Generations in History 5 of 6

6. tively, U.S. test scores are faring better in international
comparisons. (AMERICAN: Jessica McClure, the Olsen
twins, Baby Richard, Elisa Lopez, Dooney Waters, Jessica
Dubroff; Foreign: Anna Paquin, Prince William)
6 of 6 Generations in History